"W-Why?" I asked, staring at her. My voice felt strangely small the moment it left my mouth. "Why do you plan on destroying this world, Mother?"
For a few moments, she didn't answer.
She simply stood there, calm and unmoving, as though the question itself carried no weight at all. Yet somehow, that silence felt heavier than any answer she could have given me.
Then she finally spoke.
"Because, my child, to destroy it is the only way to save it."
I blinked.
For a second, I genuinely wondered if I had misheard her.
"S-Save it?" I repeated.
The words sounded ridiculous when spoken aloud.
Destroying something to save it?
That wasn't exactly the sort of logic most people would accept without asking a few questions.
Mother slowly turned her gaze toward me.
Her crimson eyes seemed distant, almost as if she were looking far beyond me, beyond this castle, and beyond this world itself.
"I have told thee a story before, have I not?" she asked softly. "The tale of mine origin."
